The reasons for Leslie B. Dunner's dismissal as musical director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra remained shrouded in secrecy last night as its board of trustees held a special meeting in Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. Dunner, 47, left the meeting at 9 p.m. and refused to comment. After a short break, board members reconvened in the converted high school after he left. Through a security guard posted at the door outside the meeting, board president Fred H. "Bud" Billups declined to comment.

The Glenview Mansion in Rockville was the setting for the April 13 marriage of Susannah Catherine Klank and Brian Earle Kolstad. Rabbi Jack Moline of Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Virginia, officiated. Susannah, the daughter of Mary Jo Klank of Silver Spring and Richard Klank of Hyattsville, is a litigation legal assistant at the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson , Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP in Washington, DC. Brian, the son of Sharon Kolstad of Arnold, MD, and Raymond Kolstad of Annapolis, is a cost analyst with SAIC in northern Virginia, and is pursuing a master's degree in Operations Research at George Mason University.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | February 5, 1998

It is fitting that Leslie Dunner is the third of four candidates for the directorship of the Annapolis Symphony to be plying his trade on the Maryland Hall podium this season because as a conductor, composer and clarinetist, he is truly a triple-strength musical talent.A baby boomer who is reluctant to reveal his age, Dunner has been resident conductor of the first-class Detroit Symphony for 10 years and has been music director of the Symphony of Nova Scotia in Canada for two seasons.Dunner has conducted symphonic, ballet and opera performances in North America and around the world, including England, Russia, Italy, Denmark and South America.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | September 23, 2004

The Annapolis Symphony's 2003-2004 concert season, cobbled together quickly in the wake of the orchestra's decision to part company with conductor Leslie Dunner, yielded only two bona fide candidates for the permanent conductorship of the orchestra. They are Lara Webber, the former assistant conductor of the Baltimore Symphony, and Emil de Cou, the current assistant with Washington's National Symphony Orchestra. Now the plot will thicken as the new concert season opens and the search committee begins sizing up several additional candidates.

THE SELECTION of Leslie Dunner as the music director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra has been cheered by many of its players. And for good reason.Mr. Dunner is a multitalented maestro who has much to offer Maryland's musical community. He is not only a first-rate conductor but a globe-trotting clarinetist and composer as well. The region's music lovers saw Mr. Dunner in an impressive performance last February as one of four finalists (from among 278 applicants) for the ASO job. He won the musicians' admiration with his level-headed flexibility after the concert's scheduled soprano fell ill and had to be replaced on short notice.

By Mary Johnson and Mary Johnson,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | September 2, 1999

Maestro Leslie B. Dunner will conduct the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in two free holiday concerts -- Saturday at Downs Park in Pasadena and Sunday at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis.The conductor revived an old Annapolis Symphony tradition of presenting free concerts in the park when he chose last year to make his debut in this informal setting.And he will focus again this weekend on the less-critical open-air audiences with whom he establishes ready rapport.Sartorially, he will have a way to go to top the sequined flag vest he wore at last year's park concerts, but he has promised another wardrobe surprise.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | April 5, 1998

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra's choice Friday of Leslie Dunner as music director over the other 278 candidates who applied to succeed Gisele Ben-Dor made perfect sense.Dunner, resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony for the past 10 seasons and music director of Canada's Symphony of Nova Scotia for the past two, was impressive at his Maryland Hall appearances in February.Faced with the sudden withdrawal of his original soloist, he changed the concert program and went on to provide exemplary support in unfamiliar repertoire for replacement soprano Kishna Davis, who sang some of the most striking Verdi and Puccini arias heard at Maryland Hall in a long time.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | June 11, 1998

Leslie Dunner is a little puzzled about reactions he's been getting to the news of his appointment to the helm of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra."The responses," he reports, "are either, 'Oh, I didn't even know Annapolis had an orchestra,' or, 'You got the ASO? Wow!'"It's interesting how the orchestra is perceived," says Dunner, who is in town this week for his first round of administrative duties since his appointment in April. "There's been such a big contrast in the reactions. Not one person has simply said, 'Oh, that's nice,' when I told them.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | September 10, 1998

Expect nothing but firsts at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts this weekend.The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra presents its first subscription concerts of the 1998-1999 season at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday.Leslie B. Dunner, the ASO's new music director, will take the Maryland Hall stage for the first time since he was appointed conductor in April.Dunner will make his subscription debut with two firsts composed by Johannes Brahms, a giant of 19th-century music whose sumptuously sustained melodic lines and deep orchestral sonorities will be loved as long as great music is played.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | September 30, 1999

Any season-opening concert conveys a special sense of excitement, but the adrenalin flowing this weekend as the Annapolis Symphony opens its 1999-2000 subscription series will be the result of more than mere opening-night glamour.Although Leslie B. Dunner begins his second season at the ASO helm tomorrow at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, this is the first year the charismatic conductor gets to place his imprimatur on the artistic fortunes of his orchestra. Due to his late hiring in spring 1998, Dunner conducted only three of the ASO's five subscription pairs last season, and the offerings -- however enjoyable -- were programmed on the fly.This year, by contrast, every selected work and engaged soloist speaks to Dunner's artistic vision for his orchestra.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | March 18, 2004

The intrigue will continue apace at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts on March 26 and 27 when the Annapolis Symphony reconvenes its search for a conductor to replace Leslie B. Dunner. This time around, the visiting maestro will be Emil de Cou, the associate conductor of Leonard Slatkin's National Symphony Orchestra, who will conduct a varied program of Samuel Barber's Second Essay for Orchestra, Robert Schumann Piano Concerto and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony. A Los Angeles native, de Cou began his professional career on the other side of the baton, as principal French horn of Germany's Baden State Theatre and of Austria's Mozart Opera of Salzburg.

A brief, but significant, era came to a bittersweet end over the weekend. After five years as music director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, years distinguished by upgrading of standards and a good deal of ambitious programming, Leslie B. Dunner wrapped up his tenure with a satisfying demonstration of his strengths and those of his ensemble. Only a few days after emergency intestinal surgery, Dunner moved a little gingerly toward the podium and had to conduct from a chair Friday night at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | May 1, 2003

Emotions run deep in Mother Russia's musical idiom, and Leslie Dunner's encounter with them as an undergraduate engineering student proved to be a life-changing association. "I wasn't happy with engineering," the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra's music director recalled, "and it was through Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and others that I came to grips with that unhappiness and decided on a life in music. The music of Russia was my liberating force." These, too, are emotional times for the conductor who will conclude his five-year tenure with the local orchestra this weekend with an all-Russian program at Maryland Hall.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | February 13, 2003

It is fitting that as Leslie B. Dunner's tenure at the helm of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra winds down, soprano Kishna Davis is coming to town for one more concert under the maestro's baton. ASO aficionados will recall that it was Davis who appeared as an 11th-hour replacement soloist at Dunner's ASO debut in February 1998. She brought last-minute repertoire with her as well. But if the conductor or the soprano, a Howard County native, felt undue pressure at having been brought together so late in the game for Dunner's audition concert, neither betrayed it in performance.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | February 13, 2003

It is fitting that as Leslie B. Dunner's tenure at the helm of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra winds down, soprano Kishna Davis is coming to town for one more concert under the maestro's baton. ASO aficionados will recall that it was Davis who appeared as an 11th-hour replacement soloist at Dunner's ASO debut in February 1998. She brought last-minute repertoire with her as well. But if the conductor or the soprano, a Howard County native, felt undue pressure at having been brought together so late in the game for Dunner's audition concert, neither betrayed it in performance.

More than two months after the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra opted not to renew the contract of its first African-American musical director, the three black members of the Annapolis city council plan to introduce a resolution tomorrow that chastises the symphony. It begins by commending director Leslie B. Dunner and noting that February is Black History Month. It ends by stating that the city council wishes to formally express "its displeasure over the decision." "I think the facts speak for themselves," said Alderman George O. Kelley, one of the three sponsors.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | May 13, 1999

The Annapolis Symphony's 1998-99 season comes to a close this weekend with a pair of concerts conducted by Leslie B. Dunner, completing his first year at the helm.The program will be brought to us by the letter "B": the G minor Violin Concerto of Max Bruch and the "Egmont" Overture and Symphony No. 7 of Ludwig van Beethoven.Young Canadian violinist Lara St. John will be the soloist in the Bruch.A grand winner of the Canadian Music Competition at the age of 9, St. John went on to win prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin Competition, the Philadelphia Orchestra Competition and the Concours Nerini in Paris.

Leslie B. Dunner has been appointed new music director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, ASO board President Gregory Stiverson announced yesterday.Dunner, who has been resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for 10 years and resident conductor of Canada's Symphony Nova Scotia for two years, is taking the place of former music director Gisele Ben-Dor, now the music director of the Santa Barbara Symphony."We're simply delighted to have him. He is a musician of international reputation," Stiverson says.

By Phil Greenfield and Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | January 30, 2003

It's hard to imagine extramusical matters intruding when Mozart, Schumann and Ravel are heading a concert bill, but as I entered Maryland Hall on Saturday to hear the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, I wasn't so sure the music would dominate. This was the first concert since the ASO executive board decided not to renew conductor Leslie B. Dunner's contract for next season, igniting a firestorm of criticism. Outside the hall, Dunner supporters handed out white ribbons, protesting the decision.

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra's board of trustees has reaffirmed its decision not to extend musical director Leslie B. Dunner's contract beyond this season. Board members would not comment after a special meeting Jan. 15 to discuss Dunner's dismissal, but ASO President Fred H. "Bud" Billups released a statement stating that the board backed last fall's controversial decision by a unanimous vote. He also stated that the board would support Dunner, 47, if he pursues another job. Billups shed little additional light on what prompted Dunner's ouster, stating only that the reasons are "personnel issues solely relating to administrative matters."